I only respond to the first six minutes or so — you get the idea. McIlhinney leaves no falsehood untold, not crazy charge not leveled at Rachel Carson and “environmentalists.”

Here’s the film clip of McIlhinney misleading the masses:

Here is my quick and dirty response:

1. Environmentalists are not calling for a ban on coal, oil or gas. Fear talk. Why would anyone tell such a whopping lie? How do we know the film lies? Who is this “environmentalist” they fear to name?

2. Rachel Carson was right — DDT kills ecosystems. Carson said we needed to restrict the use of DDT in order to keep it viable as a pesticide. But few listened (not McIlhinney, that’s for sure). Consequently, DDT became ineffective against mosquitoes that carry malaria, scuttling the World Health Organization’s ambitious campaign to eradicate malaria. Had that not happened, and had we eradicated malaria by 1975 as planned, millions of lives could have been saved. McIlhinney is the one with blood on her hands.

3. DDT has never been banned worldwide, was never banned in Africa, and is still used in those places it still works, under a special treaty signed in 2001. McIlhinney hopes you won’t know about that treaty, and fails to mention it herself. What’s she trying to hide?

4. Carson did not say DDT was the sole culprit for the decline of birds — but by 1962, it was the sole culprit preventing their recovery. Bald eagles and brown pelicans have come off the endangered species list, populations recovering in almost lock-step with the decline of DDT in the birds’ flesh — proof that Carson was right.

5. Under U.S. law, no agency could ban a useful pesticide without mountains of evidence that the pesticide was dangerous. Four separate court proceedings looked at DDT, two before the EPA acted, and two appeals after EPA banned DDT use on crops. All four courts found DDT to be dangerous and uncontrollable in the wild. The two appeals of EPA’s labeling change were both decided on summary judgment — the science was so powerfully on Carson’s side. In May 1963 the President’s Science Advisory Council reported on their fact checking of Carson’s book — they said Carson was dead right in everything but one: Carson was too easy on DDT. That panel, with its significant population of Nobel winners, called for quick action against DDT. Why doesn’t McIlhinney give the facts here?

6. The claim that EPA’s ban influenced WHO is pure bullfeathers. WHO had to stop using DDT in 1965 — the mosquitoes were immune to the stuff. EPA didn’t act until seven years later, and EPA’s jurisdiction extends only to the borders of the U.S. In fact, EPA’s “ban” left DDT to be manufactured in the U.S. for export to Africa. Can’t McIlhinney read a calendar? The “ban” in 1972 did not travel back through time to stop WHO from using DDT. (For that matter, WHO never completely stopped DDT — wherever it could work, they used it, and still do.)

7. DDT has always been available for any government in Africa to use. What that guy in the film is really saying is racist: He’s claiming Africans were too stupid to use DDT, though it was cheap and available, and though it would save their lives. Don’t listen to him. Africans are not stupid: They’d use DDT were it effective and safe. Shame on McIlhinney for entertaining such a claim.

8. Malaria did not skyrocket after DDT was banned in the U.S. Mosquitoes don’t migrate that far. There was an uptick in malaria 20 years later, when the pharmaceuticals that cure malaria in humans, ceased to be effective.

But today, malaria rates are the lowest they’ve been in recorded history, and malaria death rates are the lowest they’ve been in human history. When the U.S. banned DDT spraying on cotton in 1972, about 2 million people a year died from malaria. Today, the death toll is under 900,000. Don’t be frightened or stampeded by erroneous, large figures.

In the end, we can’t poison Africa to health, and if we could, it would be immoral to do that instead of building health care to fight diseases.

Children die because hard-hearted politicos like Ann McIlhinney frustrate the work of malaria fighters, and mislead policy makers away from solutions that would save children’s lives.

I can’t wait to see her response to this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318145/Hungary-toxic-sludge-flows-Danube-state-emergency-declared.html. This is result of a dam in Hungary that burst, releasing a sea of toxic waste from bauxite refining. You’ll of course remember that in addition to making “Not Evil Just Wrong”, McIlhinney and her husband Phelim McAleer are the geniuses behind “Mine Your Business”, a propaganda film demonizing environmentalist and promoting mining as a savior for an impoverished, rural community in Romania. I’m sure she’ll manage invent some convoluted argument that lays the blame for this disaster at the feet of environmentalism.

If she had any intellectual honestly she’d go there and interview the villagers and ask them how they feel about this mining company. How much did it enrich their community?

The Fatwah on Rachel Carson is a bizarre side-show in the current war on science waged mostly by the US right.

Carson wrote an excellent factual book about the need to manage pesticide use and avoid its harmful effects.

Unfortunately, there are politically motivated people who see pesticide management as a paradigm case of “government regulation”, which is claimed to be an unmitigated evil without parallel. The logic is that if regulation is shown to be a mistake or a failure in case of pesticides, then it falls everywhere.

It is a common assumption of the anti-science crowd to believe that these kind of forensic, courtroom type tactics and appeals to emotion will sway the public, instead of reasonable scientific discourse.

Michael Mann has suffered similar persecution for the iconic status of his “hockey stick” graph. However, it seems to me that the truth and Rachel Carson (as well as Mann) will prevail.

Excuse me for noting that the disparagement of science in these comments, especially from Bev and Kathy, has all the earmarks of a public relations campaign for Dr. Taylor’s failing movie.

Can you cite for me any study which claims DDT is not a deadly poison, Bev? Can you cite for me any study which disputes the more than 1,200 studies which confirm that DDT savages populations of wild birds?

Please do so, or retract your claims.

DDT is a toxin, a long-lived poison which bioaccumulates in tissues of living creatures, leading to acute poison deaths in extreme exertion (like migration of bats and birds), and to long-term damage to reproductive systems of creatures, and deaths of embryoes and chicks.

Unfortunately, those creatures are the predators of disease-carriers, who are much less affected by DDT.

DDT never was intended as a long-term barrier against malaria, but only as a temporary, potent knock-down agent, so medical care could get rid of the human pathogen. Any other use is even more dangerous than that.

I AGREE WITH WORLDWATCHER1! I recently saw an Excellent documentary, 3 BILLION AND COUNTING,exposing the myths, lies, coverups surrounding the banning of DDT by the EPA in the 1970s. IT IS A MUST SEE! The film acutally SHOCKS you back INTO SANITY. DON’T DENY TRUTH! BRING BACK DDT! For more info you might want to checkout: http://www.3billionandcounting

THANK YOU for sharing the film “Not evil .. just wrong”! I am so grateful that the TRUTH about DDT is finally being shared. Shame on you .. those who keep repeating the lies and REFUSE to check into the facts around DDT. Check out http://www.3billionandcounting.com and educate YOURSELF .. do not take anyone else’s word. Rachel Carson wrote an emotionally charged novel based on JUNK SCIENCE .. and we all bought it! We did not know at the time, that she had cancer (she did not tell us) and that she blamed chemicals for such! So, off we went, spreading her lies and people have died. There were over 100 “serious” scientists and doctors, 10 YEARS after her book, trying to tell folks that DDT was SAFE for humans and birds. But, the propaganda was in full force, and so was the death toll! DDT kills blood suckers, like gnats and fleas (which bite RATS then carry the plague to humans) and tics. The rise of “lyme” disease from deer tics is big in New York. You are going to see more diseases from insects. Then, maybe then, you will put your lies aside and accept the truth. Bring back DDT and DON’T DENY THE TRUTH!!!

Rather than rebut absolutely everything that’s written above, let’s start with a few simple points.

On point 2 – DDT has a tripple effect. Even if mosquitoes become resistant to the kill effect, there is no scientific evidence to prove that they become resistant to the repellancy effect.

On point 7 – availability to use DDT. Let me quote Dr. Donald R. Roberts, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Division of Tropical Health, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD; Author: The Excellent Powder.DDT’s political and scientific history.

“Vast sums of money are being used by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to get countries to not use DDT. The political struggles that ensued in Uganda when the Ministry of Health attempted to use DDT for malaria control are telling. The anti-DDT propaganda was rolled out and the country was eventually prevented from using DDT. Pressures came from organic food producers, the pyrethroid insecticide producers [vested interest to sell their product in place of DDT], threats from the European Union about trade barriers, and most important of all, the environmental activists both inside and outside the country”.

Dead Link?

We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!